My 1956 400/Esquire hardtop Production Order shows a date of the week before yours and a similar "hold" for presumably short term storage at a nearby lot. A day or so later, there is a shipping slip showing DuBois Motors in Arlington, VA as its destination. Similarly, my documents for the Executive hardtop, built in March 1956, shows a similar factory storage notation. I assumed this was the usual and customary way of saying that the cars would be parked until the appropriate shipping conveyance (truck or train) was ready to take them away. The Executive was shipped to Earl C. Anthony, Los Angeles, CA.

Both documents for both cars have handwritten notations on them (in a very nice cursive script, perhaps a woman's?) of the car's lock and trunk key codes. I suppose that this was noted somewhat late in the production process with matching keys and tumblers of whatever was next to be grabbed from the key/tumbler bins. The notes were there to inform the shipper, dealer, parts department of what locks were on the car as it left Detroit in case the keys got lost along the way.

I agree with Roger...no B29 aircraft were made at Willow Run. Boeing built them in four plants: near Seattle, Witcita, Marietta (GA) and one other that I am forgetting, but probably in So. Cal. Ford had their hands full cranking out B24 Liberators and B17s were still being made up until August 1945 in several locations. I never knew before that B29s saw no WW II action except in the Pacific...never in Europe. I also did not realize that North American Aviation was essentially a division of General Motors until after the close of the war. So, you might say GM built Mustangs (P51s) before Ford did.

After Kaiser-Frazier left Willow Run, didn't GM build Corvairs there? With Packard-powered P-51s and Spitfires (and some Lancasters, too), the Arsenal of Democracy was a pretty impressive effort we haven't seen since. Lots of War Bonds made it possible, another thing not recently seen.

This tour was most impressive. Knowing that they're still there is comforting as we get older and the cars grow even older. Someday, they will hopefully go into the younger hands we consign our cars to.

Please reassure me that all those cardboard boxes, possibly oily and greasy parts and fabric covered wire stocks are protected from a fire by regulated and monitored overhead sprinkler system. I'd hate to see another Warren museum tragedy happen. It's also a very good idea to stay on the good side of local fire and police services when you have mountains of treasures like this.

In you own way, stuff looks organized and hopefully adequately inventoried. To think that this is the Packard floor and other makes have similar collections on other floors really boggles the imagination. Please promise me that you'll never willfully attend a Hoarder's Intervention; the hobby would never forgive you.

The late Bob Aller told stories of the St. Louis zone Distributer dumping truckloads of spare, unloved Packard parts into the Mississippi before it became illegal to do so. But like the cars that would disappear from thousands to dozens, the call for these items would make an accountant want to do the same thing. Thank you for the stubborn resolve to keep up with our needs.

I may have some nice 1952 wheel covers that need only center paint done. Let me know if I can help the limo project.

Some time in the winter of 1959-60, I was a high school Freshman from a Blue Collar neighborhood who went to a private Catholic school, somewhat above our family's status. On cold winter mornings, my friends and I would wait at the bus stop hoping to spot some passing motorists who would take pity on us, shivering in our school jackets and give us a ride in a warm car.

One of our school friends came from a family with whispered Underworld connections. His father was always well-dressed and drove a new Olds Ninety Eight. When they'd stop, we'd load in as many boys who could fit, and rode in comparative luxury through the school gates. On one of those cold, but lucky rides, the father was asked by his son as to why he didn't choose to have a Cadillac, since the Olds cost nearly that much. Using language that we don't use today, the father explained that a Cadillac was the choice of Negroes, while White business men and doctors should choose a Roadmaster, Ninety Eight or New Yorker. Had it not been five years after the last true Packards were made, they might have been included on the select list.

Some time later, I asked my Chevrolet-driving father about the Cadillac theory that I had overheard. Pop's business included employees of all sorts of talents, colors and ethnicities. Pop never wanted to drive the best car in the lot, so we mostly had Chevies, although he could have afforded better. A few years later, Pop switched to senior Buicks when business got better, but he never owned a Cadillac. Not wanting to bring up the subject, I never asked why. He did, once mention that one of his best employees, a Black man, had bought a used DeVille, and kept it as the cleanest car on the lot.

Maybelle is my newest/oldest 1950 Packard and the only one fully "manual iized" with steering, brakes and the R11 overdrive. My biggest question, now that we are having some warm January weather, occurred when I first started driving her on long stretches of smooth roads at speeds approaching fifty MPH. The overdrive knob is fully pushed in, but I cannot feel or hear much difference in engine speed when I lift my right foot at speeds above 25 mph. All seems smooth and there's definitely no clunk if it is going to overdrive, and nothing seems different when speeds drop below the magic 23 mph. With the warm weather, the windows are down, so wind noise may be also fooling me. Are these units really this transparent in their operation or is mine just not working correctly? Having a tachometer would solve this mystery, but I am still only guessing that everything is working well.

My bias tubeless whitewall tires are looking good but are also of questionable age, so there's no real highway speeds envisioned for the present. But still, I don't see any future of effortless cruising at 70-80 mph speeds, even if the OD is working well. I will just be satisfied for no drama at speeds hovering around fifty to remind me of the road conditions Maybelle faced 67 years ago.

My wife wondered if even Rosie the Riverter would have found a new Packard in 1950 easy to drive with her biceps and required planning ahead for stops and curves. She's sworn off driving Maybelle and the 1967 Corvette with a similar lack of powered technology. Perhaps women of that era were just in much better shape.

Perhaps this is the most complex way to get that Oldsmobile oil pump improvement. With all the Delco-Remy stuff that was already in the 1956 Patrician, including the radio, there might be even more economies of scale ahead for the lucky, tasteless builder

Would the plugs being directly over the valves (I'd assume that over the intake is more important than the exhaust) mean that you could almost check for a sticking valve with a wood dowell or plastic stick of some sort inserted through the spark plug hole as the engine is cranked. Is that a practiced shortcut used by experienced mechanics? Think of the side valve cover gasket replacements that might save.

Compared to the great Packard mysteries (e.g. Why did Packard go out of business?), this is almost non-consequential in importance. Why did Packard go from a standard sized sparkplug in 1937 to a much smaller 10mm plug and have that last until mid 1950 production, when it went back to a 14mm? I have looked through the various Counselor and other service documents, including the Bob Aller CDs, but cannot find the justification for these changes. How prevalent were the smaller plugs throughout American car makers of the eras? Did the smaller plug fitment apply to all the Packard engines of the period, or just the 282 and 288 c.i. ?

Another Packard sighting, this time a 23rd Series Turquoise Club Coupe in the recent Meryl Streep movie, Florence Foster Jenkins. The Packard can be seen five or six times, usually parked in what is supposed to be 1944 New York City. The movie itself is based on true events and is both tender and entertaining. The other cars shown get about the same exposure, some placed right for the time, and others four or five years before their time.

It gives many of us hope that our own Packard might find a role, big or small, in an upcoming movies. Never say it's too late. Seeing any Packard, no matter the condition, real world or Concours-ready, may stimulate someone to ask questions and take up the cause.

Here in Georgia, we now have seven major movie and television studio operations. There are two companies who maintain rosters of cars that are available for movie work. I'm signed up with one of them but so far none of my Packards have been called. The Corvettes also are ready, and one friend with a 1941 Buick Roadmaster has been called. He had to say no when a studio tried to talk him into something he thought damaging and inappropriate for his car and they used up another similar car...although it is his car shown in the more prominent still scenes. The contracts and permissions seem forthright, so no harm is done without your permission. The fee he received enabled him to buy two more old and nice prewar Buicks.

On a non-Packard current topic, I fully agree with Howard that the Quick-Connect/Disconnect features of newer fuel lines are a pain, especially to old guys who are used to doing connections the old fashioned way. Put those same connector tools in the hands of younger guys who have no experience with our old ways, and they make it look easy. Someday, both of us may be convinced our old hands can do it, too.

If I understand the X-parts exchange, a Fifties Ford sender unit may fit and work the Packards built 51-56. I may find that out personally once I drop the 56 tank in the Spring. Knowing that the older K-S gauges require a bimetal sender was valuable news to me. Until Santa has the cash in hand if I have to buy an expensive bimetal one, keeping track of miles driven and premature filling will be the rule for both old and older Packards. It's too bad that both 56s are nice cars because the temptation to cannibalize might take hold. None of them is driven so far that we cannot deal with not having a working gauge.